ROH is what it is, they have gone just about as far as they can go with the head dropping, athletic indy style. Cary Silkin recognized it years ago and ousted Gabe. There is no more "hot talent" that they already don't have. Look at Gabe and some of the guys he has pushed in DGUSA & EVOLVE. When Sami Callihan is the hot indy name of the moment, you know the well has dried up. There are some diamonds in the rough, but for the most part, the indy revolution of the last decade is dead. Mike Bennett is the big ROH prospect, and he's straight out of a WWE casting call. Mediocre worker with big muscles.
If the indy stuff or ROH was going to be the next big thing, it would have happened already. ROH already peaked asthetically. Give them credit for making it to national TV and briefly being on mainstream PPV. They really are the modern day ECW in that regard, coming up from nothing to national TV in a few years time.
And even ROH was kind of an extension of ECW in a vague way...same area, Gabe involved...was kind of a natural transition for that branch of the tree to go...you had CZW as the more natural transition, which was just horrible wrestling and just oozed over the top violence...but this other branch focused on the in-ring stuff at the Indy level, which was a hidden caveat of ECW. Lots of good workers with lots of blended styles. The Indy World had seen enough of the ridiculous hardcore shit (no offense, Biss), and the Indy world, which had guys like Benoit, Jericho, Angle, etc. in the mainstream, just kind of drew their attention to companies that could field really good matches, and ROH was definitely that.
Right now though, where does the next wave of wrestling come from. In the 90's, in the same way Nirvana and the Seattle scene kicked pop music and garbage hair bands in the teeth, ECW stepped on the scene and literally laid the foreground for any and all ideas that were produced by WWF and WCW in the Attitude Era along with some foreign concepts that worked in Japan/Mexico. The business then saw its best numbers ever.
After ECW tanked, and WCW was purchased by the WWF, you had Indy Wrestling shift to something the WWF wasn't necessarily giving them, which was straight up great work rate (which, they kind of were, as the WWE might have been putting out their best workrate of their history on a consistent basis by Benoit, Jericho, Angle, Eddie, et al, but whatever). Much like the Hardcore ECW stars moved up to the big leagues...all of the Workrate ROH stars are now essentially in the "big leagues" (with too much respect given to TNA with that comment). ROH, right now, reminds me of ECW went to TNN. Instead of having a stacked roster with Taz, the Dudleyz, Shane Douglas, the Sandman, Bam Bam, Sabu et al, you went in with Rob Van Dam, Mike Awesome, and Justin Credible...in the same way ROH now enters without their stars, like AmDrag, Kings of Wrestling, Joe, et al, they go in with Davey Richards, Roddy Strong, and the All Night Express. So, its kind of hard for that little company that got to national TV to actually show why they even got to national TV without the top talent that essentially got them to that point.
But now, what is that natural transition...I have no idea...and there aren't many up and comers that make you really want to tune in, either.
Kind of in no man's land at this point.
